How I wrote 1,360 ads in 4 days ‍😵‍💫

Hand trembling, I guide my cursor across the screen, setting the status of my most recent client project to In Review.

*Click.*

“Wheeew-ee!” I whistle to Aggie. “That was a real doozy, huh?”

She rolls her eyes and sticks her paw out, signaling she wants a pat.

I oblige, then head to the liquor cabinet to pour myself a glass of whiskey.

Sinking back into the couch, I take a sip … then proceed to massage the living life out of my forearm.

See, my hand wasn’t trembling because I was nervous about submitting my project.

It was trembling because I had just spent four days straight editing and customizing 1,360 Google Performance Max ads.

Between copying, pasting, and my trackpad, my arm was dead.

It is technically my fault, though.

The whole thing kicked off last week when my client reached out with a request:

“Do you remember the copy you wrote for the Performance Max [Test]? … It went well so we are now expanding to ... every category lol … TLDR, we want to use the exact same copy but obviously make it applicable to the category …”

That’s right.

The ads I wrote did SO well that the company decided to roll out the copy format to every single vertical they operate in.

This strategy — something I call “reskinning” — is a process I've gotten very good at over the last year and half.

In my day job, I write for a lot of competing products in a single vertical.

Example: Say there are three clients that all have a budgeting app.

I write similar copy (based on angles I find during research) for all three products, then each one gets tested against the other.

Might sound like a conflict of interest, but it’s not.

The nature of the business I work for means we may run the three of the same “type” of product in a single day on one landing page.

Keeping the copy similar between each product helps me figure out which angles, hooks, and headlines work best, so we can scale the ads.

The same concept can apply to other ads too. The client I just did this for is a prime example.

The service my client offers always stays the same. But the products they sell through that service can change.

This meant I was able to keep roughly 75% of each ad, only adjusting for the different products they sell.

And that, my friend, is how I was able to knock out 1,360 ads in just four days.

But it only worked because I had already found angles, hooks, and headlines that worked for my client’s service.

Applying the same format — but changing out the product — was a no brainer. And I have no doubt the new ads will do just as well.

(Side note: I’ve also heard from other copywriters like John Bejakovic that some “A-Listers” have done similar things for long form sales letters.)

Because once you find something that works, you run with it … and try to use it everywhere you can.

For more ideas on finding things that work, sign up for my daily emails here.

David Patrick